Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. ERNST. Thank you very much to my colleagues, the Senator from Nebraska, the Senator from Mississippi, as well as our other colleague, the Senator from Missouri. Thank you for joining us on the floor today to express our support for those who march for life. Thank you so much.

As my colleagues can attest, the invaluable message being shared by the pro-life community this week has implications far beyond that of simply the March for Life. As I travel across my home State of Iowa, I see this life-affirming message in our pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, and adoption agencies. These comprehensive on-the- ground services provide women and families with service options that are changing and saving lives every single day.

These life-affirming services are the foundation of the pro-life movement across our Nation, and I sincerely thank those centers and agencies for their critical work to fight for vulnerable lives throughout the year.

I see the same message in the remarkable stories of individual families, such as the Pickering family from Newton, IA. I have had the opportunity to share the phenomenal story of Micah Pickering on the Senate floor before. As you may recall, Micah was born at just 20 weeks postfertilization. He was only about the size of a bag of M&M's--the size of the palm of my hand. That was Micah. Yet Micah was also a perfect, fully-formed baby boy, with 10 fingers and 10 toes. In fact, no one makes his case more eloquently than Micah himself.

When I first met Micah, I had a picture of him displayed in my office from the day that he was born--again, the size of the palm of my hand. Micah immediately ran up to that picture. He pointed at it, and he said: ``Baby.''

Micah recognized right away that even at just 20 weeks postfertilization, the humanity of the child was undeniable.

Micah's parents and the doctors and nurses at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics recognized this humanity, as well, and were dedicated to his survival. Today Micah is a happy, healthy, and energetic 6-year-old boy.

Stories like Micah's are extraordinary reminders that the life- affirming services, for which the pro-life community marches, have real and significant impacts on the lives of families across America.

Since coming to Congress, I have also tried to do my part to ensure that this message from those in my home State of Iowa and from other communities all across the Nation is taken back and turned into action in Washington. For me, that has meant supporting crucial pro-life initiatives, such as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would prevent abortions after 20 weeks of development--the very same age at which my dear Micah was born.

Another critical piece of legislation, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, would create concrete enforcement provisions to hold abortionists accountable if they do not provide the same degree of care to a baby who survives an abortion as they would any child born naturally premature at that same age.

Fighting for commonsense legislation that protects innocent life has been a priority of mine in the Senate. But Congress must also do more to ensure that taxpayers are not forced to subsidize abortion or the abortion industry giants, such as Planned Parenthood.

During the 115th Congress, I led the fight in the Senate to pass critical legislation, which was signed into law in 2017, that ensures States are not forced to provide entities like Planned Parenthood, the Nation's single largest provider of abortions, with Federal title X dollars.

I am grateful to have worked with former Congresswoman Diane Black, my Senate colleagues, and President Trump to make sure States are not forced to award providers like Planned Parenthood with taxpayer dollars like title X family planning grants.

As I have stated time and again, taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for roughly one-half billion dollars annually for an organization like Planned Parenthood, which exhibits such disrespect for human life. With that in mind, today I reintroduced legislation that would defund Planned Parenthood while still protecting vital funding for women's healthcare services. Contrary to what they claim, Planned Parenthood is not the Nation's preeminent provider of women's healthcare. In fact, Planned Parenthood facilities do not even perform in-house mammograms; something so simple is not performed by Planned Parenthood.

On the other hand, just as my colleague the senior Senator from Nebraska stated, community health centers continue to greatly outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide and provide more comprehensive preventive and primary health services, including cervical and breast cancer screenings, diagnostic laboratory and radiology services, well childcare, prenatal and postnatal care, immunizations, and so much more. Access to comprehensive health services is absolutely critical to women and families across this Nation, and federally qualified health centers offer such services, regardless of a person's ability to pay.

A recent GAO study that I requested, along with many of my colleagues in both the House and the Senate, showed that over a 3-year period, federally qualified health centers served 25 million individuals compared to only 2.4 million individuals that Planned Parenthood served. That is more than 10 times more people served by those healthcare centers.

Furthermore, a recent Marist poll shows that 54 percent of Americans do not support taxpayer dollars going toward abortions. While there are Federal regulations that prevent Federal dollars from directly covering abortion, these laws are governed by a complicated patchwork of policies and funding riders that must be reapproved during the appropriations process every single year.

Since 1976, the Hyde amendment has been attached to appropriations bills in order to block Federal funds from paying for abortions. However, this policy, which once drew widespread bipartisan support, has recently been under attack. For the first time ever, the Affordable Care Act authorized and appropriated funds that bypassed the Hyde amendment funding restrictions. In 2016, the Democratic Party added the repeal of the Hyde amendment protections to its Presidential platform.

The Hyde amendment is a longstanding and critical provision that protects Federal dollars and ensures that taxpayers are not footing the bill for abortion procedures. That is why I support the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2019, which was recently reintroduced in the Senate. This legislation would permanently codify the Hyde amendment, ensuring that funding restrictions remain in place and are applied to all Federal programs. Furthermore, this bill takes important steps to eliminate certain tax benefits related to abortions and improve disclosure requirements related to insurance coverage of abortion.

Preventing our taxpayer dollars from paying for abortion procedures-- a position that a majority of Americans agree with--should not be a complicated process vulnerable to partisan attack. Congress must take steps to ensure that permanent protections apply governmentwide.

As such, I urge the Senate to consider the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Disclosure Act on the floor in order to protect not only our taxpayer dollars but the innocent lives of our most vulnerable.

I appreciate all of the marchers who will be coming to Washington, DC, in the following days and spending their time in a most worthy effort, which is our annual March for Life. God bless them all. Of course, God bless my Iowans for that journey.

Thank you very much.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source